A roundup of Sunday editorials from Alabama’s leading newspapers

Two big decisions from large corporations this month offer lessons for Alabama and its dreams of expanding our economy.

In the first, Alabama is already the big winner. The Huntsville area will be the site of a $1.6-billion Toyota-Mazda auto-manufacturing facility. The announcement came earlier this month.

The plant’s placement will deliver an estimated 4,000 jobs to the region. When that happens, the $900 million incentives plan offered by the state and local governments will be well worth it.

We can’t ignore that cooperation among local governments across three counties — Madison, Limestone and Morgan — appears to have been a difference-maker, as well. “We worked together as a metropolitan community to attract business and I think that is something that very few communities can offer. So it sends a very clear message to those companies, that we’re open to business, that we’re willing to do business, and that we’re going to do it right,” Huntsville City Councilwoman Jennie Robinson told a local TV station.

Democrats dream in blue. They dream of a blue wave coming. They envision the possibility and increasing probability that a November wave will restore them to power in Washington in at least one chamber of Congress, the House, and maybe even the Senate. Gains thought out of reach even a few months ago are looking achievable as Republicans fight among themselves and watch voters ebb away.

In every election over the last year, Republicans have under-performed while Democrats have over-performed. A special election to fill a state Senate seat in Wisconsin last week continued the pattern with Democrat Patty Schachtner winning in a solidly Republican district.

On this cold and earlier-than-usual press day, I figured I’d stay in the warmth of the office and clean out the email. Of course, when you get hundreds per day — in the words of former football coach Houston Nutt describing a team’s scoring at will against his team, “They come at you so fast, it just messes you up.”

It was one of the few times that Nutt’s analysis was spot on.

Let’s see, for the fifth consecutive year I have been invited to the Opp Rattlesnake Rodeo. NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE… A THOUSAND TIMES NOPE! While I’m sure there are nice people at he Rodeo, hanging out with snakes of any kind is not my cup of tea, particularly those with fangs and bad intentions. I’d much rather hang out with mad bulls fenced in behind an arena. I’ve yet to see one of them crawl under the gates and sink their bites into a calf muscle, although choosing to ride one whose main purpose is to not let you ride it is beyond my comprehension. I attended a PBR event in Chicago once and decided right then and there that professional bull riders have either an “one” or “ome” problem — too much testosterone or too few chromosomes.

An important part of being a sheriff that few people see is the feeding of inmates in the county jail. They are, under state law, personally responsible for providing at least two meals a day.

The state “helps” with this by providing sheriffs $1.75 per day for each inmate. If that falls short of the amount necessary to provide food, sheriffs must dig into their pockets and make up the deficit.

That might have been effective in the early 20th century, but it is as archaic a system as can be imagined today.

There is concern some sheriffs might not be supplying inmates with adequate food. Two groups have filed suit, demanding to see sheriffs’ records to find out more.

You’re so offended by the notion of two dudes saying “I do” that you want to scream “I don’t.” You’re so offended, so worried some probate judge will abhor the law he or she was sworn to uphold that you’d divorce the whole institution of marriage from government.

On Jan. 11, I spoke to an audience of 70 persons at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center at Skokie, Illinois. My topic was the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black pilots in American military service.

Before I spoke, I toured the museum, a very powerful tool for telling the story of the worst genocide in history. One of the messages was that even while Jews in Germany and other parts of German occupied Europe were being persecuted, confined to ghettoes and eventually placed in concentration and extermination camps, many nations all over the world refused to accept Jewish refugees.

The 2018 Alabama legislative session began last Tuesday with the normal full slate of needs awaiting action.

No doubt the halls and offices of the Statehouse already are filled with lobbyists pushing their agendas, but perhaps one of the Legislature’s first priorities should be to do a bit of lobbying itself.

Congress has yet to provide definitive action on restoring funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. If it fails to do so, much of the burden will fall to the state.

Tens of thousands of Alabama children have their health care depending on what Congress and ultimately the Alabama Legislature do.

Imagine for a moment how many of us feel when we hear the Houston County weather sirens. If it’s noon on the second Wednesday of the month — yes, Wednesday; the Emergency Management Agency changed the testing day this month – and the siren sounds for three minutes, we should know that it’s simply a test. But if it’s a stormy Wednesday, many of us might get anxious just the same.

If the weather is bad and there are tornadoes about, or a looming hurricane, the sound of the siren can cause even more stress.

So imagine how the people of Hawaii must have felt last Saturday when an emergency text alert went out with this warning: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

We suspect that a large number of local people who heard this week that a University of Alabama student had made racially-charged, hate-filled rants on social media were relieved when they learned the young woman was from New Jersey. It is a shame that someone who has been in town for such a short while is being associated with the university and the state.

No doubt, if she had attended, say Rutgers University, instead of Alabama, her vile diatribes on social media would not have received the same amount of national attention. We understand why. Alabama has a history that dredges up some very ugly imagery when it comes to race relations.

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